Police set up RUSE drug CHECKPOINTS on highway, motorists pulled over if take the next exit.

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As a general matter, “police can stop and briefly detain a person for investigative purposes if the officer has a reasonable suspicion supportedby articulable facts that criminal activity ‘may be afoot,’ even if the officer lacks probable cause.”
At the outset, we note that the Supreme Court has held “actual” roadside drug checkpoints are unconstitutional. In City of Indianapolis v. Edmond,531 U.S. 32, 48, 121 S.Ct. 447, 148 L.Ed.2d 333 (2000), the Court held that a narcotics checkpoint whose primary purpose “is ultimately indistinguishable from the general interest in crime control” violates the Fourth Amendment. In that case, Indianapolis police had established vehicle checkpoints in an effort to interdict illegal drugs.
In United States v. Yousif, the Eighth Circuit held unconstitutional a scheme involving “signs ... placed along the highway warning travelers that they were approaching a drug checkpoint further down the highway, yet the checkpoint was actually located on the ramp which exited the highway a short distance past the signs.” 308 F.3d 820, 823 (8th Cir.2002). The officers were instructed to stop every vehicle that took the exit after the ruse checkpoint signs. Id. The court was unable to distinguish this ramp drug checkpoint program from the roadside drug checkpoint program held unconstitutional in Edmond because “its primary purpose was the interdiction of drug trafficking” in the absence of any basis for individualized suspicion. Id. at 827. The court recognized that while the modified program differed from the practice in Edmond, the same constitutional problems persisted.
We join the Eighth Circuit in holding that a driver's decision to use a rural highway exit after passing drug checkpoint signs may be considered as one factor in an officer's reasonable suspicion analysis, “although it is not a sufficient basis standing alone to justify a seizure.” Carpenter, 462 F.3d at 987;see also Prokupek, 632 F.3d at 462 (“[R]easonable suspicion for a traffic stop cannot be based solely on the fact that a driver exits an interstate after seeing a sign indicating that a drug checkpoint lies ahead.”).
A Fourth Amendment seizure that relies solely on a driver's decision to use a rural or “dead exit” following checkpoint signs falls short of the requirement of individualized, articulable suspicion of criminal activity. See United States v. Wright, 512 F.3d 466, 471 (8th Cir.2008) (“[T]roopers

Anton Vialtsin, Esq.
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